Analysis: Second presidential debate rakes new putrid depths

Things turn pretty nasty at the bottom of a barrel and the second US presidential debate raked new putrid depths that are being plumbed almost daily in this grotesque election campaign.

Donald Trump brushed off being caught on tape bragging about grabbing the genitals of a woman and being able to "do anything" to women as a celebrity.

He called it "locker room talk" and "just words" before changing the subject to how dangerous Islamic State is, and then to how "abusive" Bill Clinton has been to women.

Over the course of more than 90 minutes, the billionaire said that Hillary Clinton was "the devil" and had "tremendous hate in her heart," that she would "be in jail" if he was in charge and pledged, if elected president, to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate her.

This was Donald Trump unleashing the Full Donald Trump.

Even the billionaire seemed to display a healthy sense of irony when he said at one point, “I’m a gentleman, Hillary - go ahead,” offering to let his Democratic opponent answer a question first.

Not a ‘gentlemanly’ performance

There was nothing gentlemanly, or even presidential, about his performance. Playing to the hardline “alt-right” movement that his presidential campaign has turned mainstream, Trump jabbed Clinton repeatedly in a display that will have had his supporters punching the air with delight in front of their TVs at home.

The Republican avoided the mistake he made in the first debate: he did not try to defend himself on his many past inflammatory remarks. When they were raised, he pivoted quickly, and went hard on the offensive, hitting Clinton on her emails, trade deals and her “basket of deplorables” comment about his supporters.

On his taped remarks - the elephant in the room from the beginning of this debate - Clinton delivered what seemed a well-rehearsed response to Trump’s vulgar words. “This is who Donald Trump is,” she said attempting to puncture his claim his 11-year-old comments do not represent him now.

Following her strategy of allowing Trump’s own words to hurt rather than hers, Clinton did not return to the issue of the tape.

“Everyone can draw their own conclusions at this point about whether or not the man in the video or on the stage respects women,” Clinton said, leaving the issue hang out there.

The decision seemed strange, particularly when Trump’s fellow Republicans are deserting him in such large numbers. Given her own unpopularity, Trump is probably more valuable to her weakened but still in the race.

Did not back down

Trump, for his part, never backed down. He threw insult after insult at her, picking from the greatest hits of his high-decibel campaign-rally collection.

Several times he scored points. He mocked Clinton’s weak response to another damaging leak on that was overshadowed by Trump’s sex tape: that she told a Wall Street audience during a paid speech that she adopted public and private positions on policies. She claimed she was referring to Abraham Lincoln’s duplicitous yet effective political dealing but the charge of being two-faced remained largely unanswered.

"Honest Abe never lied… that's the big difference between Abraham Lincoln and you," Trump responded.

‘When they go low, you go high’

Clinton’s “when they go low, you go high” strategy seemed not to work at certain points as she missed opportunities to land counter-punches on Trump. As a result, his performance might stem some of the outrage among Republicans over his predatory “grab them by the p***y” taped comments.

On the other hand, his strange prowling of Clinton during the walk-about town-hall debate format will not help his rehabilitation with women and his public disagreement with this running mate over how to deal with Russia raises further questions about the unity not just within his party, but on its presidential ticket.

A CNN/ORC poll of debate watchers, which the network says skews Democratic, declared it a win for Clinton by 57 per cent to 34 per cent for Trump. The same poll found a better-than-expected performance by him and this will help him regain control over a campaign that was spinning out of control over the weekend.

The debate felt more like a draw on points with neither candidate likely to gain significant ground among the crucial undecideds. The full Trump is a hard sell to the turned-off moderate Republican, the unsure independent voter or the disaffected Democrat unhappy with their second-choice candidate in Clinton.

His voters will be pleased for sticking it to Clinton; her voters will be pleased for exposing more of Trump’s monstrous side. Those in the middle will be left with a rather unpleasant feeling after this ugly encounter.